Ms Vieng says she can now call herself a mushroom farmer. Smiling, she holds up one of the bags she learned to prepare during her training on mushroom cultivation, a flush of mushrooms growing from it.

An FAO programme is helping 750 vulnerable households across 36 villages in the Kayes region of Mali. The 18-month programme combines unconditional cash transfers with in-kind livestock inputs such as goats and animal feed.